Human Resource Management (HRM or HR) is the management of human resources.

It is
designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives.
[1]
HR is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing
on policies and on systems.[2] HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee
benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and
rewarding (e.g., managing pay and benefit systems).[3] HR also concerns itself with
organizational change and industrial relations, that is, the balancing of organizational
practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and from governmental laws.[4]

HR is a product of the human relations movement of the early 20th century, when researchers
began documenting ways of creating business value through the strategic management of the
workforce. It was initially dominated by transactional work, such as payroll and benefits
administration, but due to globalization, company consolidation, technological advances, and
further research, HR as of 2015 focuses on strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions,
talent management, succession planning, industrial and labor relations, and diversity and
inclusion.

Human Resources is a business field focused on maximizing employee productivity. Human

Resources professionals manage the human capital of an organization and focus on
implementing policies and processes. They can be specialists focusing in on recruiting,
training, employee relations or benefits. Recruiting specialists are in charge of finding and
hiring top talent. Training and development professionals ensure that employees are trained
and have continuous development. This is done through training programs, performance
evaluations and reward programs. Employee relations deals with concerns of employees when
policies are broken, such as harassment or discrimination. Someone in benefits develops
compensation structures, family leave programs, discounts and other benefits that employees
can get. On the other side of the field are Human Resources Generalists or Business Partners.
These human resources professionals could work in all areas or be labor relations
representatives working with unionized employees.

In startup companies, trained professionals may perform HR duties. In larger companies, an

entire functional group is typically dedicated to the discipline, with staff specializing in
various HR tasks and functional leadership engaging in strategic decision-making across the
business. To train practitioners for the profession, institutions of higher education,
professional associations, and companies themselves have established programs of study
dedicated explicitly to the duties of the function. Academic and practitioner organizations may
produce field-specific publications. HR is also a field of research study that is popular within
the fields of management and industrial/organizational psychology, with research articles
appearing in a number of academic journals, including those mentioned later in this article.

Businesses are moving globally and forming more diverse teams. It is the role of human
resources to make sure that these teams can function and people are able to communicate
cross culturally and across borders. Due to changes in business, current topics in human
resources are diversity and inclusion as well as using technology to advance employee
engagement. In the current global work environment, most companies focus on lowering
employee turnover and on retaining the talent and knowledge held by their workforce.[citation needed]
New hiring not only entails a high cost but also increases the risk of a newcomer not being
able to replace the person who worked in a position before. HR departments strive to offer
benefits that will appeal to workers, thus reducing the risk of losing corporate knowledge